Correctional Officers

FROM Officer.com ^
http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=2&id=31154

Florida Guard Shoots Officers In FBI Arrest Attempt

Six guards in all had been indicted Tuesday in an alleged sex-for-contraband scheme that authorities said went on for two years.

When FBI agents and Justice Department investigators arrived at the prison Wednesday to arrest the men, one of the indicted guards shot a federal correctional officer, said FBI spokesman John Girgenti. He said the officers fired back.

The agents were not expecting the prison guards to be armed, the law enforcement official told the AP, though he could not immediately explain why.

The official said the guard fired with a personal weapon, wounding a Bureau of Prisons employee who was assisting with the arrest. Agents from the Justice Department's inspector general's office returned fire, killing the guard, the official said, adding that a Justice Department agent was killed in the exchange. It was not immediately clear who fired that fatal shot.

"The community is safe. The institution is in lockdown status," federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Carla Wilson said.

Dan Gerous's thoughts:

O K, road cops and street cops got into trouble too. Every 3 months, a thing came out, the "Punitive Action Summary". Usually there were 8 to 12 officers who (later on, not named, no ID number given)had done incredibly stupid, sometimes criminal things. This was out of 4,800 Officers.
Actions ranged from Letter of Reprimand to termination.

For almost 4 years, I worked at Blythe, California. At the time, it was ideal for any law enforcement officer to work there. No one was high or low. Border Patrol was regarded as brothers, as was Blythe Police, Riverside County Sheriff deputies, and Fish and Game Wardens.

Of course, Blythe has the same climate and environment as Baghdad, Iraq.

After I left, a prison was built near Blythe. The actions of those who worked at that prison soured relations between all of the Departments.

PROBLEMS:
1. CO's (Correctional Officers) tend to think of themselves as Law Enforcement. They are not. They deal with the already-convicted.
2. They think that they rate the same "Professional Courtesy" i.e., overlooking minor violations of traffic laws that other Law Enforcement receives.
In Blythe, when they did not get that "Professional Courtesy", their Union Rep instructed them to file a complaint against the Officer or Deputy issuing the citation. One was tape recorded. Later, she came to the office and filed a complaint, making several allegations. All were refuted by the officer's tape recording, and she was referred to Court for a violation of Giving False Information.
3. You constantly hear about drugs and weapons coming into prisons. How do you think they get there? Certainly not UPS.
4. Later, in other prisons, I heard tales of female guards becoming enamored of male inmates, CO's having "business arrangements" with inmates, and constantly being stopped and cited for all kinds of anti-social driving.

In my view, if someone tells me that he/she is a C O, my suspicion ranking is at 10 on a scale of 10, until they show me otherwise.